It’s been long enough where I think I have enough stories to make up a pretty good blog. What took place in my life this past weekend was a life changing experience for myself and it began a chain event of things stirring in my mind.
I got off for the weekend and decided it was about time to go on an adventure. I have yet to go to Yellowstone so I came to the conclusion that I would find a way to get up there. I packed all my things together in my pack and everything that I needed, or so I thought, for a couple nights of not knowing where I would be headed. I was by myself along this journey. As I’ve learned from past experiences, I know that I enjoy spending time in my own thoughts so that everything that I was doing was based on my own opinion, which is something that comforts me very much.
I started my hike alongside the road that was headed north into Yellowstone. Alongside the road for about 2 hours, I figured I had hiked about 6 miles so far when a car rolls by coming to a stop beside me. Without looking, a voice I’ve never heard before asks me if I need a ride. Hesitating for not more than a few seconds I mutter a “sure,” and hop in his vehicle. His first question was asking where I was headed. Not knowing myself, I turn the question around and ask where he was headed. He told me that he had just brought some hitchhikers down from Montana through Yellowstone and Grand Teton to the town of Jackson and was on his way back up through Yellowstone to make it to Montana, where his journey began. This seemed to coincide perfectly with my plans because for all I knew I just wanted to make it into Yellowstone.
I recalled a campground that I stayed in when I went up to these parts of the world when I was a little youngster called Norris Geyser Basin and figured that would make for a good time, so since it was on the way, that’s where I’d be headed.
The guy who had picked me up was named Gene and appeared to be about 23 and we shared some great conversation on the way up there. Talking about things like making the most out of life, going places without knowing where you’re headed, making stories and just letting life happen. Basically, the conversation got me pretty stoked to be doing what I’m doing this summer.
A couple hours later we made it to the campground area and was struck with the first news of misfortune. CAMPGROUND FULL said a sign at the entrance in bold letters. Oh well, I said he could drop me off anyways. I had everything I needed to survive; tent, sleeping bag, a very small amount of food, green tea, and a small stove. I was looking at the bulletin board reading some information when an older man came over to me and saw that I was in need of a campsite. He told me that I could use the site that he was staying at because he was just going to be sleeping in his van for the night. We shared a campfire and talked a bit about what was going on in our lives. He was just going on a road trip by himself and doing things that he used to do in his youth. I pulled out a can of chili and heated it up on my stove and he offered me several slices of bread noticing that I was a little short on food. I set up my tent in the dark and put all my things in the bear box. There also was zero cell service in the remote part of the world that I was in but there were pay phones so I scrambled to find 4 quarters and call my folks to tell them of my plans. OH, and I just remembered that when we were driving into the campground, about 100 yards off the road, we were fortunate enough to have just caught the last of a wolf hunting down an elk and ripping it to pieces…AWESOME!
Okay, I’m going to let you know what I packed for food which was one of two large mess ups on the trip. Also if you know much about me, you might just know that food is near the top of my list of favorite things ever, and I eat lots of it. Anyways before leaving, I had packed 4 apples, an orange, a can of chili, and 5 granola bars… not a hint of what I needed to survive for two days in the wild. By the first morning, I had gone through the can of chili, 2 apples and 2 granola bars.
I went for some hiking that day and saw some things that were absolutely wild; I felt at times that I was walking on another planet, seeing the geysers and mud holes and hot springs. At the gift shop, there was no food or phone service still but I did come across a soda vending machine and bought the tastiest Dr. Pepper that I had ever consumed. Watch out Dublin! I sat on a bench looking at the basin sipping my soda and my mind was filled with memories of all the good times and bad times that made me who I am thus far, which I think deserves another blog someday.
After eating “breakfast” that morning, I packed up all my things and stuck my pack in the bear box so I wouldn’t have to haul it all day. I came back to the campground at about 4:30 only to find that the campground was full again except for the hiker/ biker sites so I wandered over there and picked up the last spot. There was another older man already settled in, who I assumed to be about 60 who had a fully loaded bike with panniers and luggage racks anywhere you could fit them. I introduced myself and asked him his plans. He told me that he was on a solo cross country cycling trip. I thought this was the coolest thing I had heard and with some other recent events am thinking this is something that will take place in my life someday. He was making it from Eugene, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts in about 5 months. After a little talking, he was kind enough to offer me some Fig Newton’s which I had no problems accepting.
About an hour after I arrive, two brothers come into camp and find no other sites, so decided that I would not mind sharing mine. We introduced ourselves and learned their stories. They were from Israel, but lived in Tennessee and the older brother was moving to San Francisco for a job and they were just making a road trip of it. They had previously gone on all sorts of adventures including 5 month backpacking trip of South and Central America and it sounded awesome! Since the 4 of us were in close quarters that night, we spent the night telling stories around a campfire that we had built. The brothers, Daniel and Roy said they had extra spaghetti, which again had no problem accepting. We made s’mores and had a few sips of what the brothers claimed to be the best Bourbon in Tennessee. Some awesome and hilarious stories were told and after realizing that a late night had turned into an early morning, we put in the towel for the night about 1:30 a.m.
The next morning, I was awoken by what I thought were the footsteps of the brothers walking around. I unzipped my tent and was shocked by my misjudgment. There was a 2000 pound bull bison grazing on the grass 7 feet away from my tent. I stared in awe wondering if the beast would be frightened by appearance and charge me. The brothers were awake as well and were motionless inside their tent staring at the animal. We waited a few moments until the bison had eaten the worthwhile grass in our site and moved on. We then wearily crawled from our tents and told stories of our near death experience in which we 4 had turned out unscathed.
The brothers brought a pot of water to a boil and made us some Turkish coffee to start our days. We all shook hands and got information about Michael’s cross country trip that he writes on a blog. http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=1r4vFZo&page_id=214889&v=3b&part=2 We all walked down the path only to find the bison in our way between the road and us, with no way around it. A women had also found interest in the bison and felt like getting a close look to take pictures. The 4 of us commented on how ridiculous she was being and without any warning, the bison instantly turned its head for the women and began a short charge directly at her. The women instinctly went into survival mode and hid behind a tree that was close enough and the bull went back to its grass. As were we all, the women seemed very shaken up by the event and probably headed to the restroom to clean up an explosion in her shorts after that experience. The next part of the story explains the second mess up of the trip. So calling people and keeping in touch with people on this journey was difficult because I had to use pay phones that of which were rather expensive, so my calls were sparse. The only plan before this trip was that I would be in Yellowstone and my sister would pick me up in her car and we would venture around the park. Well in order for that to work, she had to know when and where to pick me up from. I called her and told her to pick me up at 10:00 a.m. at Norris Geyser Basin. I thought this was a great plan that would work flawless. However, myself not being clear enough on the phone, my sister had mistook “Norris” for “North.” When I realized that 10:00 had come and gone and the time was nearing 11:00, I knew there was a problem. I tried to connect to my sister but she was on her way to “North” geyser basin with no phone service either. Well, eventually we figured it out after lots of profit going to the payphone and time wasted. We ended up enjoying the rest of the day doing some sightseeing and getting a gross quantity of food for myself to consume.
That was about the events that took place in my life the past weekend and am so glad that I have this experience to tell and talk about.
